News tagged with actin

Pathogenic bacteria develop killer machines that work very specifically and highly efficiently. Scientists from the University of Freiburg have solved the molecular mechanism of a fish toxin that could be used in the future ...

Insight into the regulation of cell skeleton structure has come from a study conducted by A*STAR researchers. The work, which solved a protein structure that has eluded scientists for 20 years, should lead to further insights ...

Several well-known neurodegenerative diseases, such as Lou Gehrig's (ALS), Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's disease, all result in part from a defect in autophagy - one way a cell removes and recycles misfolded ...

Here's the rub with friction—scientists don't really know how it works. Sure, humans have been harnessing the power of friction since rubbing two sticks together to build the first fire, but the physics of friction remains ...

The proteins associated with driving the cell shape changes that internalize the embryonic inner ear have been identified by Raj Ladher and colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology. "Our hope," says Ladher, ...

Scientists led by Kristina Djinović-Carugo at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL) of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have elucidated the molecular structure and regulation of the essential ...

When a basically sturdy material becomes soft and spongy, one usually suspects that it has been damaged in some way. But this is not always the case, especially when it comes to complex fluids and biological cells. By looking ...

Actinopterygii

The Actinopterygii /ˌæktɨnɒptəˈrɪdʒi.aɪ/ or ray-finned fishes constitute a class or sub-class of the bony fishes.

The ray-finned fishes are so called because they possess lepidotrichia or "fin rays", their fins being webs of skin supported by bony or horny spines ("rays"), as opposed to the fleshy, lobed fins that characterize the class Sarcopterygii which also, however, possess lepidotrichia. These actinopterygian fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements, the radials, which represent the link or connection between these fins and the internal skeleton (e.g., pelvic and pectoral girdles).

In terms of numbers, actinopterygians are the dominant class of vertebrates, comprising nearly 96% of the 25,000 species of fish. They are ubiquitous throughout fresh water and marine environments from the deep sea to the highest mountain streams. Extant species can range in size from Paedocypris, at 8 millimetres (0.31 in), to the massive Ocean Sunfish, at 2,300 kilograms (5,100 lb), and the long-bodied Oarfish, to at least 11 metres (36 ft).